A Lot of Little Gulls 23rd April 2021

Friday the 23rd April was like any other day, in that I  made my way to Farmoor Reservoir very early to avoid the crowds and be first on the causeway.

It was chilly but sunny as I  ventured along the familiar ribbon of concrete that serves to divide the two basins.The absence of wind meant the waters were flat calm and my hopes of seeing the Little Gulls that were here yesterday had suffered a mortal blow as a consequence. They had gone and just two Common Terns swooped elegantly over the waters of the larger basin.

Further up the causeway I saw a brown bird, a large wader perched on the retaining wall. It was a Whimbrel, taking a rest on its migration from West Africa to northern parts, maybe to Shetland and Orkney where they now breed, although most go further to Iceland and Scandinavia, maybe as far as Siberia.

I approached it slowly but it was not prepared to allow me to get near and soon took to the air, calling, and headed off southeast into the sun. 

This was a nice start to the day, cheering me immensely and the good vibes carried on as I located a Little Ringed Plover, similarly taking a rest by the water on the other side of the causeway.

At the top of the causeway I turned to walk back down and on getting to the Causeway Hide heard two Little Gulls calling but instead of being out over the water they were high in the sky heading northeast and not stopping. I tarried a while by the hide in the hope that more might appear but little happened for at least half an hour until about twenty Little Gulls arrived from nowhere and began to hawk flies from the water's surface.

I watched them throughout the early morning as their number slowly grew. Various counts at regular intervals revealed that, progressively others were arriving on the reservoir, so that by 9.45am there was an incredible 81 flying back and fore. The biggest count in Oxfordshire prior to this was of 53 in 1995 again at Farmoor Reservoir, so the county record had well and truly been trounced. 

And what a marvellous spectacle it was. Little Gulls were literally everywhere you looked on the larger basin and many local birders having heard the news came to see the spectacle.

Their buoyant, tern like flight is totally distinctive as they alternately dip and ascend as if suspended on elastic, sometimes sweeping around or shooting upwards in pursuit of insects, the entire group flying in one direction before turning and flying the other way, restricting themselves to an area of the reservoir approximately opposite me.The full adults look like large moths, the white tips and fringes to their wings creating an optical illusion, so that the wings appear soft and rounded. Some of them came close enough to the causeway that you could see the faintest of pink blushes on their breasts and bellies, and when they banked in the wind their underwings appeared black but were in fact charcoal grey fringed with white. Some adults still retained white flecks of winter plumage, yet to be moulted, in their black hoods whilst others were younger birds, in their third calendar year and although possessed of a partially black hood could be distinguished by dashes of black on the outer primary feathers.Yet others, I counted half a dozen, were even younger, only in their second calendar year and looking markedly different to the rest, with a head predominantly white and upperwings crossed with an inverted W of faded brown. the wing tips appearing pointed and giving them a markedly different jizz to the older birds.

Second calendar year Little Gull

Tiny and dainty they made the  larger Black headed Gulls that were flying with them look cumbersome in comparison. Every so often some of the flock would settle on the reservoir, forming a tight little group on the blue water but soon they would fly up and return to hawking for flies.

It was not only Farmoor Reservoir that enjoyed this bonanaza of Little Gulls. On the same day inland reservoirs across the Midlands and southern counties of England also received unprecedented numbers, such as Draycote Water in Warwickshire with over 40, Rutland Water in Leicestershire had 107 at one point and there were 75 at Pitsford Gravel Pit in Northamptonshire.

What caused this influx is not known but probably was due to weather systems both locally and further afield and the persistent northeasterly winds of the last few days were surely a factor. 

Little Gulls spend the winter at sea, mainly in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, migrating to breed in Fennoscandia, northern Europe and western Russia, nesting in colonies on sandbanks, in reedbeds and on islands in shallow lowland lakes, often associating with Black headed Gull colonies. They are a very rare and irregular breeder in Britain but I can recall a pair breeding on the RSPB's Loch of Strathbeg Reserve in Aberdeenshire in June 2016.